Category Archives: Florida anise,gardening

“No. Don’t give up hope just yet. It’s the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.”― Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four

When I bought this Florida Anise shrub, Illicium floridanum,

a few years ago at the SCCF plant nursery,I had high hopes.It would grow.It would flourish.It would love living at TheGreatWall.We’d be the belle of the gardening world!But most of all,it would love me!

Alas,it wasn’t to be.It struggled.It did nothing.I felt defeated.Unloved.”Why do you hate it here?!”

Even though I read up on it,I guess I wasn’t the best spouse.I didn’t fulfill it’s needs.But I tried.I gave it mulch.Good soil.Shade from the late afternoon sun.Watered it well.Talked sweet things to it.But it wouldn’t adjust….Just when I thought divorce was inevitable,and I was going-shovel in hand– to deliver the divorce papers…I found this!